ACC urges safety during spring calving
Dairy farmers around the country are into the busy spring calving period.
WorkSafe is recommending the dairy industry reassess its use of slide pulsators, following a recent death in a Waikato milking shed.
Jeff Bolstad died on 27 July in Morrinsville when his clothing become entangled in the rotating bar of a slide pulsator. There is no indication the 69-year-old intentionally reached into any part of the machinery.
WorkSafe is in the early stages of investigating the circumstances, but already has enough information to urge caution.
“We are extremely concerned about the risk posed by exposed moving parts on slide pulsators and urge farmers to check their set-up is safe or bring a specialist in for advice,” says WorkSafe’s investigation manager, Paul West.
Under the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015, there is an obligation for businesses to manage their health and safety risks.
For farmers, this means to either ensure slide pulsators are safe, substitute them for an electronic pulsator, install safeguarding to prevent access to any moving parts, or remove them. PVC tubing used on some farms is unlikely to provide enough protection to eliminate the risk and meet the required guarding standards.
“The risk of clothing entanglement is real, and steps need to be taken to manage that risk. Any rotating shafts that can catch clothing or body parts need as much protective guarding as possible, or to be replaced,” says West.
NZPork has appointed Auckland-based Paul Bucknell as its new chair.
The Government claims to have delivered on its election promise to protect productive farmland from emissions trading scheme (ETS) but red meat farmers aren’t happy.
Foot and Mouth Disease outbreaks could have a detrimental impact on any country's rural sector, as seen in the United Kingdom's 2000 outbreak that saw the compulsory slaughter of over six million animals.
The Ministry for the Environment is joining as a national award sponsor in the Ballance Farm Environment Awards (BFEA from next year).
Kiwis are wasting less of their food than they were two years ago, and this has been enough to push New Zealand’s total household food waste bill lower, the 2025 Rabobank KiwiHarvest Food Waste survey has found.
OPINION: Sir Lockwood Smith has clearly and succinctly defined what academic freedom is all about, the boundaries around it and the responsibility that goes with this privilege.
OPINION: Should cows in NZ be microchipped?
OPINION: Legislation being drafted to bring back the controversial trade of live animal exports by sea is getting stuck in the…